Kirsten Brown

Brown Named Top Oral Advocate

Kirsten Brown was selected Top Oral Advocate at the Appellate and International Advocacy’s Final Four on April 12.

Brown will share the Diana P. Scott Prize for excellence in appellate advocacy with the other finalists, Loura Erickson, Rex Feller and Kimberly Paese. A distinguished panel of judges, headed by Judge Pamela Rymer of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, presided over the competition. U.S. Magistrate Kim Mueller and Justice Coleman Blease of the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, joined her on the bench.

Best Brief awards went to Jason Price and Isauro Villarreal for the plaintiffs-appellants category while Kimberly Paese and Matthew Olson were honored for their work on the defendants-appellees side. Professors George Harris, Eric McElwain and Mary-Beth Moylan, who oversee the Appellate and International Advocacy program, organized the event. Judge Rymer spent the entire day on campus as the Distinguished Jurist in Residence. She spoke in several classes and delivered a faculty colloquium on “ The Structure of the Ninth Circuit and En Banc Procedures.”